Woodstock residents seek to criminalize fracking

WOODSTOCK, N.Y. -- Town residents are urging the Town Board to encourage state lawmakers to criminalize the controversial natural gas drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Ten speakers at a board meeting on Tuesday said the energy industry is seeking to earn profits through a practice they say has been shown to contaminate water supplies. They say the industry has used studies that have been questioned for accuracy and is not held responsible when problems are found.

Town resident Myra Silander said the energy industry's activities could lead to the loss of community resources and private property.

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"Wouldn't it be a crime to introduce dangerous chemicals into the streams and lakes in which we swim and fish in?" Silander said. "Wouldn't it be a crime if our properties were taken by eminent domain by a corporation building a pipeline? And wouldn't it be a crime if our community's well-being was monitored by underfunded, understaffed agencies like the DEC (state Department of Environmental Conservation) and EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), which are primarily designed to serve those same corporations they are monitoring?"

Some speakers also said the information being used by the Department of Environmental Conservation to draft fracking regulations has been tainted by funding from the energy industry.

"So much money has been poured by the American gas (industry) into the colleges that it has corrupted much of the research," said town resident Felicia Kacsik.

Resident Linda Leeds was among those voicing concerns that studies are not providing accurate results.

"Given that some of the science is based on data modeling that might be wrong, are we willing to bet the planet?" she said. "Our federal representatives claim that, in the national interest, we must develop the abundance of gas and oil that is now available through hydraulic fracturing. ... Where is the sane energy policy?"

Fracking involves water and chemicals being injected into shale formations at high pressure to release trapped natural gas. Opponents of the process say it is harmful to the environment. The energy industry maintains it's safe.

In the Northeast, the vast Marcellus Shale is considered ideal for fracking, but portions of the formation in Ulster and Greene counties are not thought to be good sources of natural gas.

Concerns voiced in Woodstock on Tuesday also focused on the use waste fluids from fracking for such things as deicing roads.

State Department of Environmental Conservation Director of Public Information Emily DeSantis last year said fracking opponents have misrepresented the type of fluids used and said determinations about the fluids' safety are made before they are spread.

Editor's note: This story has been modified to clarify Ms. Kacsik's reference to the gas extraction industry, generally, rather than any particular trade association.